Creative Summer Reading List

It’s Summer time and you might just be looking to pack some creative reading into your case! I’ve selected some five books for you from my bookshelves! There’s some to learn from, to stimulate, to relax and entertain (that’s important too) and one or too just for creative eye candy! As always, it’s an eclectic mix collection and not everything will grab your fancy but you just might find something you might not have otherwise picked up. And don’t even have to break the bank as much of this kind of stuff can be found in that second-hand shop that you know you’ll look cool coming out of.

One. Playing Big by Tara Mohr

Tara Mohr saw a pattern in her work as an expert in leadership: women with tremendous talent, ideas and aspiration were not recognising their own brilliance. They felt that they were ‘playing small’ in their lives and careers and wanted to ‘play bigger’, but didn’t know how. So Tara devised a step-by-step programme for playing big from the inside out: this book is the result.

Two. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Hot off my dbedside table, I just finished this one in a couple of days.

Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down. Where to get it: this New York Times top ten best seller can be bought here for €6.80.

Three. Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

I loved this rambling love story. It’s a gentle read.

At 17, Thomas McNulty and his brother-in-arms, John Cole, go on to fight in the Indian wars and, ultimately, the Civil War. Having fled terrible hardships they find these days to be vivid and filled with wonder, despite the horrors they both see and are complicit in. Their lives are further enriched and imperilled when a young Indian girl crosses their path, and the possibility of lasting happiness emerges, if only they can survive.

Four. Passing Time in the Loo Volume I by Compact Classics

Looking to deepen your knowledge about literature without reading all the classic this summer? Here’s a little short cut!

Passing Time in the Loo Volume 1, Summaries of All-Time Great Books brings you more than 130 summaries of well-known and well-loved books, plus hundreds of trivia, quotes and quiz facts! So in spare moments you can acquaint yourself with a book you’ve always wanted to know and as a fan of literature you can now complete your education and become genuinely well-read.

Five. Frida Kahlo by Andrea Kettenmann

Six. Leonardo’s Ink Bottle by Robert Weir

This one is a great find for finding your voice. You can dip in and out or treat it like a workbook.

The artist’s search for unique, meaningful expression, on paper or canvas, in clay or marble, wood or bronze, is actually mirrored in each of us. Whether we are composing a letter, a song lyric, or a landscape, the desire is the same: to express ourselves easily, elegantly, and eloquently. An artist by vocation and profession. Part 1 describes the rediscovery of and reliance upon instinct, intuition and inspiration; Part 2 examines the mastery of technique; and Part 3 brings us full circle: having reached a degree of comfort with the nature of inspiration and the mechanics of rendering artistic forms, we are asked to cast it all aside–to stop thinking about it–and just do it.

Where to get it: This book is a bit pricy but you can get a copy of it here for €28.

Seven. Painting from Photographs by Dianna Constance

This is the kind of book that you can pick up on sale, at a market or scound hand. It’s amazing what you can find without breaking the bank if you keep you eyes open.

Many professional painters and graphic artists use photographs for their work as a matter of course, but the practice has never been properly presented and explained to the amateur painter. This book, however, shows how to make the most of this very useful tool in the creative process.